BATMAN '89 #1 Cover Gives Us A First Look At Billy Dee Williams' Harvey Dent As Two-Face

@Repian - that would be pretty cool. Just gotta ask though, what comic is this from?

@Repian - oh yeah that explains it, never got around to that one. That cover is very Apocalypse Now though

@Shasvre - Why do I get the feeling I have just been called old? Which I am actually, well at least older.

@Origame - Oh you youngsters. Yeah I understand what you and others have tried to convey on this but I do have a tad bit of contention. Up until recently, say the last 10 to 15 years or so, something that can be quibbled about I admit, race swapping was done often because studios didn't give a damn about anyone else except white males and they figured audiences wouldn't except anyone but them in certain roles. As for Billy D's role being a minor one, yeah but it has always stuck out like a sore thumb, in the best way, to me at the time of its release and even now, especially when I hear people making the race-swapping complaints, usually when it involves a Black actor. I still wonder why no one made the complaints about the OG BattleStar Gallactica's characters of Col. Tighe and Boomer who were originally Black, race-swapped to a White guy and Asian woman in the reboot. I did hear people initially go crazy about Starbuck being changed to a woman, but not the original Black characters. Things have changed for the better now where its the actor or actress that is important and will either enhance the character or screw it up as it should be. As I indicated before, some characters should not ever be touched for race or gender reasons from the source material. But its nice to see that the studios have pretty much accepted this reality of some-what color/gender blindness. Just wish a lot of the fans did as well. Lastly, you know you sound like Tom Holland playing Spiderman when you say, "its a really old film anyway." Just reading that makes my knees and other joints start to make noises I had never heard before.:)

@Origame - Why do people always go to the “for the sake of making race different” argument? Like, maybe the actors they choose are just the best for the role, has nobody ever considered how weird it is that you don’t assume that? Sure, it’s also done sometimes because somebody looks at a story and goes “wow, literally all these characters are white by default. We really don’t have to do that.” but if Two-Face were black today nobody would assume the black actor was just the best/most popular choice.

The black Superman thing I get how you can say is for “clout” (really odd use of the term) but I think it also fundamentally changes the story in a way that can actually be creative and interesting.

@Origame - Hey youngster, I am old. I still get what you are saying but I have a slight quibble with your analysis on the marketing front. The studios didn't include people of color back in the day (outside of Sidney Poitier) because basically they didn't care or didn't think enough of them to market the movie toward that demographic. You know what really made them change their tune? The introduction of a movie called "Shaft". OMG those people will go see movies too the studios thought. Thus the introduction of all the Blaxploitation films, C+ quality at their best usually, but at least they gave a lot of actors and people behind the cameras jobs who couldn't get them before. Martial Arts films were the same after "Enter the Dragon" was released. But the death of Bruce Lee hindered what could have and should have been in that genre. Like I said before there are some legacy characters that should never be race or gender swapped. But with the introduction of these multiverses, parallel worlds or what have you, there are instances where another version of a character can be changed/adjusted, and I'm ok with that as long as they leave the OG character alone and pretty much stick with what the comics themselves have presented.

@Origame - Ain't that the truth...

@OmegaBlack13 - because the character isn't black. Pure and simple. It's part of the overall iconography. Not only that but in the case of Annie, she's a well known ginger icon, a demographic that's been slowly phased out of pop culture because of decisions like this.